This invention relates to a female terminal and a connector comprising the female terminal.
Referring to FIG. 10, JPA H11-233182 (Patent Document 1) discloses a female terminal 900 which comprises a main body 910, a main spring portion 920 and an auxiliary spring portion 940.
As shown in FIG. 10, the main body 910 forms a receiving portion 950. Specifically, the receiving portion 950 opens forward in a front-rear direction, or in an X-direction. The receiving portion 950 is configured to receive a male terminal (not shown) along the X-direction. The main spring portion 920 is supported by the main body 910 in a cantilever manner. The main spring portion 920 extends in the receiving portion 950. The main spring portion 920 has a first spring piece 922, a second spring piece 924 and a contact portion 925. The first spring piece 922 has a fixed end 923. The first spring piece 922 is held between the contact portion 925 and the fixed end 923 in the X-direction. The contact portion 925 is held between the first spring piece 922 and the second spring piece 924 in the X-direction. The auxiliary spring portion 940 has a first support portion 942 and a second support portion 944. Each of the first support portion 942 and the second support portion 944 is movable in an up-down direction perpendicular to the X-direction, or in a Z-direction. The first support portion 942 and the second support portion 944 support the first spring piece 922 when the male terminal (not shown) and the female terminal 900 are connected with each other. The contact portion 925 is positioned forward of any of the first support portion 942 and the second support portion 944 in the X-direction.
In the female terminal 900 of Patent Document 1, the main spring portion 920 is supported by the auxiliary spring portion 940 having the first support portion 942 and the second support portion 944. Accordingly, the contact portion 925 can be brought into contact with the male terminal (not shown) with sufficient contact pressure upon the connection of the male terminal (not shown) with the female terminal 900. However, the female terminal 900 of Patent Document 1 has a drawback that the main spring portion 920 is easy to be deformed plastically.